


Polyglot

by lillpon



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Family, Gen, pure fluff how did I manage that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-07
Updated: 2019-09-07
Packaged: 2020-10-11 21:43:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 649
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20553164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lillpon/pseuds/lillpon
Summary: Little Hope surprises her mother with the new words she learns. Words not even Emma knows.





	Polyglot

She starts suspecting something’s up from how widely Killian smiles at her as soon as she wakes up.

After helping Hope dress and takes her downstairs, Killian side-eyes her from the stove, where he’s cooking their favourite omelette. 

“What’s going on?” Emma asks with a smile of her own.

“Nothing, love.” His lie is blatant, but she decides to play along, waiting for his surprise.

It happens way faster than she expected. Curtis and Lenore are off to school, and just after Killian helps Hope put on her coat, she runs to Emma, raising her arms in a “hug” gesture, as she does everyday for the morning goodbye kiss.

“Filo se,” Hope tells her with a grin, one that widens at Emma’s undoubtedly confused face.

“What?” Emma says and turns to Killian. He’s feigning ignorance, shrugging, but she can see the smile he’s trying to supress. “Alright,” she says. She’ll play their game. She’s patient. 

She puts Hope down, and she runs to her father, off to take her to daycare.

The next day, a Friday, she’s prepared to listen better to what Hope will say, so that she knows what word to search for.

But Hope still surprises her. 

After the hug and the kiss, another grin appears on her face as she says, “Ek an ther.”

This time, Emma’s head shakes in confusion. “What? What are you teaching her?” She tells Killian, trying to supress a laugh.

He shrugs again, barely keeping a straight face as he takes Hope’s hand and leads her outside with his head held almost annoyingly high.

She refuses to ask him later what he’s been teaching Hope. She knows he knows many languages, but he doesn’t know them _all_. Eventually Hope will start repeating words, if anything, because she _loves_ repeating new words she learns.

Nothing happens during the weekend. Emma still expects a new surprise language on Monday morning, when an unexpected ally appears; Alice. She calls at the exact right moment, to inform them that she and her father have just reached cell phone service range, after their weekend-long cruise trip on the Jolly Roger.

Seeing Hope running to her, she puts the phone on the table and picks her up.

Hope plants a big kiss on her cheek and says, “Gi melin”.

Emma’s confusion only halters at Alice’s soft, barely audible “Aww,” from the phone.

Emma smiles, puts Hope down and tries to feign confusion as Killian walks their toddler out, seemingly unaware of Alice having heard them. As soon as the door closes, Emma picks up the phone again.

“You heard that?”

“Yeah.” 

Emma can even hear the smile on her face. “You know what it means?”

“You don’t? I thought it was just... a thing you all did.”

“No. She’s been saying that stuff to me and I have no idea what it is.”

Alice breathes out a laugh. “It means ‘I love you’. That was Elvish.”

A mix of warm and sly contentment spreads through her, as she realizes how adorable Killian and Hope have been... and how she can surprise them back.

“You know Elvish?”

“We had so much time to spend in the tower. I could probably translate a couple more languages too.”

“I want you to teach me something.”

The next day, she’s ready. As long as Hope uses one of the languages Alice could help her with. 

And she does. After a big kiss on the cheek, she says, again, “Filo se.”

Emma grins at her and says, “Filo se mallon.” She then giggles at Hope’s adorably confused face.

“What that, papa?” 

Killian walks to them, a not-so-surprised smile on his face. “That was a surprise mama had for _you_.” 

“What it meant?”

“It meant ‘I love you more’.” He winks at Emma, leaving a kiss on her lips. “Should have expected such a retaliation.”

Emma scoffs a laugh. “You underestimated me.”

**Author's Note:**

> Curtis and Lenore are two of the kids that - in my headcanon - Emma and Killian adopt before having Hope. I’m planning on writing a bigger fic about how they meet and adopt them - and a couple more after having Hope - but for now regard them as Hope’s bigger siblings :3
> 
> The languages used for the ‘I love you’s were respectively Ancient Greek, Old Norse and Tolkien’s Sindarin Elvish. Since the two first languages are not in use anymore and the third is fictional, research on them is a bit tricky. I hope I didn’t confuse anyone who happens to know any of those well :P
> 
> The official wording for the Old Norse phrase is “ek ann þér“ but since the story is from Emma’s POV, it’s written as simply as someone not knowing the language (like me) would hear it.


End file.
